"We can do much better as a state when we are faced with a major threat if we can bring all of those enterprises together to make sure we have the one consolidated approach against whatever the threat may be, fire, flood or otherwise," he said.

Mr Ryan says the white paper, which will be released today, includes 25 recommendations and has arisen from the bushfires royal commission and the Neil Comrie flood review.

But the Opposition spokeswoman, Jacinta Allan, has dismissed the shake-up.

"Labor's record in Government was to strongly support our fire services with more resources, new fires stations and new equipment.

"What we've seen, after just two years of [the] Baillieu [Government} is they've ripped $66 million out of our fire and emergency services."

Mick Tisbury of the United Firefighters Union says the idea sounds fine on the surface, until you dig a little deeper.

"What has been leaked to us is that one of the recommendations is reducing the number of firefighters on shift at night time," he said.

"I wish I did have a crystal ball so I could tell you when people are going to have heart attacks.

"They're trying to run the emergency service like a business. We're not a business, we're an emergency service."